LONDON – NOVEMBER 10, 2017: Wide consensus that the global shipping fleet must rapidly decarbonize has catalyzed some of shipping’s most ambitious and commercially-savvy leaders, strategists and innovators to co-develop an Action Plan for the decarbonization of international shipping in line with meeting the target of limiting global temperatures to 1.5oC, as indicated in the Paris Agreement.

Industry leaders from across the shipping eco-system will collaborate on figuring out how to maximize opportunities arising from the decarbonization challenge during the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 23) to the UN Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bonn, Germany during the ‘Ambition 1.5oC: Global Shipping’s Action Plan’ summit being held on November 13.

In order to help manage the complexity of the proceedings, the core organizing committee for the summit have appointed Group Partners to facilitate and capture ideas emerging from the cross-industry, high-level work groups participating at the summit.

Group Partners have developed a unique technique of Structured Visual Thinking ™ which is a series of design-led approaches and provocations that brings to life and captures complexity through visualization. The resulting images that are co-created by participants can often reveal new patterns and approaches to familiar challenges.

Group Partners’ expertise is centred around working with complexity and stimulating creative, fresh thinking around systems challenges. The company has worked with many large and complex businesses to help their leadership teams think through every kind of business challenge. Examples include the 2012 Olympics in London, working to address the UN Global Goals and commercial organisations like Coca Cola, HP, Lockheed Martin, 21st Century Fox, BP, Rolls Royce and Transport for London to name a few.

John Caswell, Head of Crayons at Group Partners comments: “We’ve never experienced a time where the complexity of our world and the rate change has been so intense. The successful industries and businesses are those that can think their way through all the that. They will be able to consider the possibilities and make the tough choices. They will be the ones that can step back far enough to see the big picture and build a sustainable position in society.”

Diane Gilpin, CEO/Founder of the Smart Green Shipping Alliance, part of the summit core organizing committee comments: “There is a plethora of near market-ready technologies, we have a heterogeneous global fleet and can match the best technologies to the most suitable ships to build a future proof, green supply chain to support global trade in a decarbonized future. It’s complex but manageable given the abundance of talent we have in the industry.”

Following the summit, a copy of the draft Action Plan created will be immediately delivered to UNFCCC delegates, National delegation focal points, the UNFCCC secretariat and all relevant national policy makers giving a summary of the high ambition approaches agreed at the summit.

The summit has been officially endorsed by a jury consisting of the UNFCCC partners; the incoming Fijian Presidency of COP23, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety and the City of Bonn and is an official Climate Partner for COP23.

An official press conference will also be held at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety on November 15, 2017.

Information about the summit and press conference can be found at: www.shippingambition1o5C.com.